She reviewed academic literature, analyzed 57 community materials, and talked to seven OSS developers directly.
7 developers = entire open source community
That article reads like it was written by AI. Feels like a ChatGPT bullet list just with the emojis deleted. They also didn’t really say much specific about the FOSS dev burnout, just generic explanation about what burnout is. The article cites a study but then instead of talking about things from it, it just says generic slop about how a burned out FOSS dev could feel.
Edit: I feel like my comment contradicts itself but it’s hard to put into words exactly what’s wrong with the article but it just reads so poorly.
Are you sure? Because based on the internet armchair developers I see around, open source developers are an inexhaustible source of unending miracles that work for free and are fueled by incoherent, conflicting, entitled demands from 14 year olds.
open source developers are an inexhaustible source of unending miracles that work for free and are fueled by incoherent, conflicting, entitled demands from 14 year olds.
Ah, I see you’re a Bazzite user
e: (No offense to the Bazzite user, I’m sure you’re a special little guy and not at all a problem.)
I feel like there is scope for a Patreon type thing that allows you to donate a fixed amount but choose the projects it goes to so it gets split between them. So I can donate €20/month and choose projects A, B, C and G so they all get €5 each
Being in both sides of the coin, like every volunteer I can tell often that is really tough.
Sometimes a nice email or a post boost will heal moral for a while.
Sometimes a 1€ donation will help a bit for this month hosting fees.
At least that’s what I am trying to do, probably not regularly enough.
I respect how OpenBSD seems to work. Like “we do this for ourselves, but if you want to use our software, go ahead, we don’t mind (or care)”.
The open source developers should unionize against the large corporations not paying them. A virtual picket line, and collective bargaining
Related blog post I saw posted yesterday goes into a lot of depth on exactly what you’re talking about.
It does not. It pledges source-available software as a better alternative to FOSS. So it by definition is not about FOSS devs. (I’ve only read part of the article because I oppose the opinions they share, so maybe it talks about FOSS devs in the part I have not read.)
I noticed them talking about one of their softwares being licensed under FSL, not having heard of it, I looked it up and…
They kinda lost me at
What about AGPLv3 though? AGPLv3 is not permissive enough.
However, in the original article, this section definitely had me thinking. I thoroughly agree with the author’s stance on this, and I wonder if their alternatives will actually solve the problem.
As the former VP of Community at Discourse (GPLv2) I spent half a decade participating in the making of certifiably Free, Open Source Software that got put to use by literal nazis to amplify their organized hate, and all we had to say for ourselves was “well, the license says free for everyone”.
It makes me think of “”“Truth”" Social" using Mastodon code, and illegally at that. I guess… at a certain point if a bad actor is gonna be bad… Will a license stop them? I’m unconvinced that AGPL isn’t enough, but I could still be won over.
So long as my freedoms as a regular individual are maintained with the software that I use and love (my primary concern is some megacorp enshittifier being able to just take the stuff I use on the daily) then I’m open to new licensing schemes. I could be won over.
Dark humor becomes a coping mechanism. “Fix it, fork it, f*ck off” becomes the phrase of choice.
oooo, I like that.
Really good points there.
After seeing one of my team burnout (and I’m feeling it too), the indicators mentioned are real.
Treat them well (and pay them, regularly).
